LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Beer and bologna will be served up soon at a Schnitzelburg landmark.
Three years have passed since the last customer walked into the old Hauck's Handy Store.
A longtime Schnitzelburg hangout is getting ready to reopen. We’ll take you inside the renamed Hauck’s Corner tonight at 11 on @WDRBNews. The name may be slightly different, but there’s plenty of ties to the Handy Store past pic.twitter.com/o9f5i5oOct
— Conroy Delouche (@ConroyDelouche) June 17, 2022
The shop was open from 1912 until 2019 when it was closed.
After an extensive remodel, the old general store is just weeks away from reopening its doors. The restaurant and bar is now known as Hauck's Corner.
Jeff Walschon has worked for the past 18 months to make sure the business stays authentic to its past.
"Saved everything that I could from out of here. I filled up, like, two gutted houses and two garages with all the material. Had to fix the foundation," Walschon said.
The wood, from the floorboards to the new counter, are from the old shop. The cooler that chilled lunch meat and sodas is still humming.
"It works like a charm. They don't make things like that like they used to," Walschon said.
Almost everywhere you look, from the green wall tile to the vintage sign out front, has a feeling of familiarity.
"Every single table in this place is an old door from the building," Walschon said. "These are all the old doorknobs. These are for purse hooks."
Walschon is dedicating this space to the corner's neighbors and to one man: George Hauck.
A photo of George Hauck hangs in the newly remodeled Hauck's Corner in the Schnitzelburg neighborhood. (WDRB photo)
"Seems like anybody who has lived in this neighborhood has a story about George," Walschon said.
Longtime owner George Hauck, who died in 2020, brought the World Dainty Contest to his street.
When you walk past the bar and into the building's old apartment, you'll find a museum dedicated to the German game played on the corner every July.
The outside and the inside of Hauck's have changed and some things may cost more than they did 25 years ago, but the legacy remains 110 years later.
"It's a great space for people to gather, and that's what I intend to use it for," Walschon said.
Walschon hopes to have the business open by this year's World Dainty Contest, which will be held on the last Monday of July.
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